Gold Star event: Alliance pays tribute to its fallen heroes

It’s a distinction that no one aspires to achieve.

However, it’s one that is worn proudly, though mournfully, once it is bestowed upon them.

For to be a Gold Star Family means that someone – a father, a son, a daughter, a mother, a sister, or a brother – has been killed in the line of duty while serving in the United States military.

With approximately 150 people in attendance, the Hometown Heroes Banner Committee honored 22 Gold Star Families on Saturday, May 28, during a ceremony in which it also dedicated a memorial stone at Alliance’s 9-11 Memorial inside Silver Park to two men from the Alliance area who died as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on The Pentagon.

Although only 22 Gold Star servicemen and women – those represented by banners along State Street, Main Street and Union Avenue – were mentioned by name, Sid Zufall, a member of the committee who initiated the Hometown Heroes Banner Project, noted that the event was a tribute to all Gold Star service members as the country marked Memorial Day weekend.

“We are here to honor not only our hometown heroes, but indeed, hometown heroes from all across our great nation,” said Zufall before reading the names of the honored soldiers with a dozen having family members or friends in attendance to receive a plaque in their honor. “For the love of country, they found themselves standing in some terribly critical juncture where they traded their lives to ensure our liberty.”

Starting with William R. Ruth and Mark A. Hawkins, the two who died as a result of the attacks on the Pentagon and were named on the new memorial stone, Zufall called off the roll of honor of the Gold Star servicemen and women who have banners in their honor, including Ashley White and Daniel M. McVicker, the two area soldiers memorialized with banners who were killed in action following the September 11 terrorist attacks, and Ralph Hunt Jr., who was killed in Vietnam.

All three of those soldiers had family members speak later in the ceremony, sharing the stories of their loved ones and their thoughts on being a Gold Star family.

Others whose names were called included Vietnam casualties James Heim, Richard Francis Runzo and Thomas Mangino, an Alliance soldier who is still listed as missing in action and is the namesake of the Thomas Mangino Chapter 157 Vietnam Veterans of America in Alliance and is also memorialized by having the extension of Main Street named in his honor.

World War II KIAs honored on banners include August Pederzolli, James N. Sidley, Daniel R. Shea Jr., and James Stirling.

Those killed in action during World War I were Fremont W. Bradshaw, Kenneth Graham, Homer Moulin, Dewey Patterson, Charles Phillips, Harry Saunier, Otis Springer, Grant Tucker, Glenn Whetstone, and Francis E. Williams, the first Alliance casualty of the Great War whose name adorned the Alliance VFW Post 1036.

“Yes, we mourn those who gave their lives for our liberty, but we should also thank our Heavenly Father that such men and women lived,” said Zufall. “Words and ceremony fall short of expressing the overflowing gratitude that is in our hearts.”

Honoring Ralph Hunt

Randy Hunt was just 14 years old when his brother, 1st Lt. Ralph E. Hunt Jr., was sent to Vietnam.

“It was about this time that I started exchanging letters with my brother, who was 10 years older than me,” explained Randy Hunt. “He was my hero. He was bigger than life.”

Ralph Hunt Jr. gave his siblings much to look up to.

The oldest son and the second of the five children of Ralph and Gunnie Hunt, Ralph Jr. had worked at the family business, Hillcrest Market, as a teenager. After graduating from Alliance High School in 1961, he went to Mount Union where he studied philosophy and religion, largely due to his relationship with the Rev. Herbert Garnes, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and his sons, Herb Jr. and Art, who also worked at Hillcrest Market.

After graduating from Mount Union in 1965, Ralph Hunt earned a full divinity scholarship to Duke University and had completed a year of studies when he decided to volunteer for military service after seeing various news reports on television and in newspapers and magazines about what was going on in Southeast Asia.

“That’s when his patriotism took over,” said Randy Hunt, noting that his brother had joined the ROTC at Duke and had decided to enlist in the Marine Air Corps, volunteering to fly Huey helicopters after learning of the mass casualties.

“I think he realized how life-threatening that was,” said Randy Hunt.

Ralph Hunt was eventually stationed at Pensicola and in San Diego, where he met and married a nurse named Carol. The couple was together a short time before he was deployed to Khe Sanh.

“That’s when I started to exchange letters,” explained Randy Hunt, who was speaking on behalf of his sisters Nancy and Martha as well as his brother Richard. “It was a way for me to share what was going on in my life and that of my siblings as well as what was going on in my brother’s hometown, and he was grateful for that. At the same time, he was able to instill in me his personal values, his family values, and he recounted the heroics of his fellow servicemen. He even expressed his remorse for the killing of Viet Cong soldiers and North Vietnamese civilians, but he also realized that his service was protecting democracy for the South Vietnamese people and that it was well worth it.”

Randy Hunt said his brother always concluded his letters by stating that he prayed for peaceful and quick conclusion to the war.

Unfortunately, the war ended for Ralph Hunt Jr. on June 7, 1968.

Hunt was on a medevac mission in the Quang Tri province of South Vietnam when his Huey helicopter was hit by enemy fire and crashed into a mountain. Hunt and two other soldiers on board were killed instantly.

Less than a week later, three Marines came to the Hunt home on Vincent Boulevard.

“As a 14-year-old, I had no idea why they were there,” said Randy Hunt. “But I turned to see my mother drop to her knees and burst into tears. When I went to console her, she looked at me and said, ‘Your brother has been killed.’”

Now, more than 40 years later, Hunt can truly reflect on the ultimate sacrifice his brother made.

“As a 14-year-old, I had no idea that day of the pain and the anguish that my mother and my father felt not only that day, but for the rest of their lives,” said Hunt. “As a father and a grandfather today, I certainly understand the depth and the breadth of their pain.”

He asked that everyone in attendance give thanks to all veterans and present servicemen and to pray for the fallen soldiers who died for the freedoms being exercised during the ceremony, such as free speech and the right to assemble.

“Too often I forget about these freedoms, but so quickly I am reminded how precious they are when I visit my brother’s gravesite,” concluded Hunt. “Pray for these and all fallen soldiers. Pray that they rest in peace and for their eternal comfort and joy. Lord knows they all so richly deserve it.”

Ashley White's legacy

Deborah White, mother of 1st Lt. Ashley White, spoke about the legacy of her trailblazing daughter, a graduate of Marlington High School and Kent State University, where she studied athletic training and joined the ROTC.

Ashley White was working in North Carolina as an athletic trainer at St. Andrews University and was a platoon leader as a reservist in Goldsboro when she was approached about a new program called the cultural support team (CST), which she joined and was part of a group of fierce and brave women who went through a strenuous selection process with special operations and were then attached to either Green Berets, Rangers or Navy Seals.

Ashley was attached to the 75th Ranger Regiment and tasked to go out on night missions to gain intel and provide aid to females and children, thus bridging the cultural gap that previously denied the military critical information.

On the night of Oct 22, 2011, Ashley entered an IED booby-trapped village in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan and was killed alongside two Rangers.

“While Ashley’s sacrifice has been undeniably devastating, her death has shed light on not only showing that women are capable of serving on the front lines but that they are valuable and that they are needed,” said Deborah White. “Standing before you today and speaking Ashley’s name and sharing her story is the greatest honor a mother could have. I hope that her legacy helps inspire at least one person to do what you want to do and not let any door stop you.”

Deborah White recounted the many ways in which Ashley White lives on, including having two classrooms at Kent State dedicated in her honor. The National Guard has renamed its Greenville facility the 1st Lt. Ashley White Readiness Center and there is a larger-than-life monument at the headquarters of the National Guard unit in Goldsboro.

Ashley’s War, a book by Gale Tzemach Lemmon, was on the New York Time’s bestseller list and the first chapter of The Hero Code, a book written by Admiral William H. McRaven, who started the CST program, is about Ashley.

In 2017, she was inducted into the United States Army Women’s Hall of Fame, and a larger-than-life pillar tells her story at the National Museum of the United States Army outside of Washington, D.C., Her portrait hangs at an institution dedicated to military women.

Locally, a portion of State Route 44 has been named in Ashley White’s honor in Marlboro Township,

At the Villages for Veterans in Florida, Ashley’s House is a facility that can house up to seven female veterans as they make the transition back to civilian life. In Phoenix, Arizona, five similar homes called Ashley’s Place are doing the same thing.

“That is something that is dear to my heart because that is something that Ashley would do because she cared about helping people,” said Deborah White.

Several scholarships are named for Ashley, including two at Marlington High School.

A therapy dog named in her honor helps veterans at Walter Reed National Medical Center and at other military events, while seven little girls have been named after Ashley.

“The impact that Ashley has left behind has been great and her legacy continues,” said Deborah White. “And her story will continue because the people that name their children after her tell their children her story. And while none of these things will bring my daughter back, people will continue to learn who she was and say her name.”

Deborah White urged those in attendance to take a moment and grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice of Gold Star soldiers and their families.

“On Memorial Day, take one minute and make it a silent minute and remember the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have sacrificed their lives so you can have your hamburgers and hot dogs,” closed Deborah White.

The McVickers' story

Even 17 years later, Mark McVicker said he is still dealing with the loss of his son, Lance Cpl. Daniel M. McVicker, who was killed near Al Qaim on Oct. 6, 2005 when the vehicle he was driving hit an IED.

Lance Cpl. McVicker and his passenger died, while three soldiers in the back survived, but were roughed up for life, said Mark McVicker as he delivered an emotional story about his son.

“That day, October 6, was just like any other day,” said McVicker. “I was ripping on a couple of guys for goofing off and I told them to get to work. I had meetings all day. I told a couple of off-color jokes. I had a fight with Captain Morgan that night. It was a typical day.”

However, when a military escort came to his home the next day to deliver the news of his son’s death, Mark McVicker’s life was changed forever.

“My life has not been the same since that October 7,” said Mark McVicker, who was accompanied at the podium by his wife Irma. “I remember that I was driving around, telling family the bad news and I going down Union Avenue past Mount Union and could have stopped and smacked these kids. They were just walking around and having a good time and I was thinking to myself, ‘Don’t you know? My son is dead.’ And then I realized that what they were doing is what he was fighting for. That’s what he died for. That freedom.”

Mark McVicker remembered his son, a 2003 West Branch graduate who served as the school’s assistant Warrior chief, as the greatest kid he ever knew.

Mark said that Daniel, disgusted and angered by the tragedy of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, told him that he wasn’t college material. That he wanted to do something else. That he wanted to join the Marine Corps, which he did and was eventually planted in Cherry Point, North Carolina.

“He was refueling jets and helicopters and anything else that needed refueling,” explained Mark. “He called me up and he told me that he didn’t join the Marines to pump gas. He said he could have stayed at home and done that. He said he needed to go [overseas] and I told him that I understood.”

Lance Cpl. McVicker was passed over for deployment twice. The first time he had volunteered and they took everyone who hadn’t. The second time there was a call to go to Iraq, he didn’t volunteer, but that time they took everyone who had asked to go, the young McVicker told his father.

On the third call for overseas duty, he got his wish and made the ultimate sacrifice when the vehicle he was driving went over an IED called a Lucky No. 13.

“I just recently found this out,” explained Mark McVicker. “It’s an IED in which the pressure plate needs to be struck 13 times before it detonates and Dan was the 13th one to go over it.”

It took six days for Lance Cpl. McVicker’s remains to be returned to the United States and John Christian took the McVickers to Cleveland to retrieve the body.

“We wanted to see him,” said McVicker. “Mr. Christian warned us about what to expect. He said that Dan was ‘wrapped elegantly in gauze.’ That made me laugh a little because I remember thinking that Dan would have loved to have been described as elegant.”

Days later, members of the McVicker family spent 13 hours on their feet as approximately 1,800 mourners turned out to pay their respects for the fallen American hero.

“There were so many who came out,” said Mark McVicker. “Members of the community, friends, family, even strangers. They all came out. That’s my story, but even after all these years, I still deal with it every day.”

Irma McVicker added that it’s the support of community that has impressed her and many family members.

“The community has made us feel loved and supported,” said Irma. “One family member at the funeral remarked how it seemed like everyone came out to pay their respects. That’s something that this community should be proud of and that support is what gets us through every day.”

Paying tribute to Ruth, Hawkins

A new memorial stone to Chief Warrant Officer William R. Ruth and Chief Petty Officer Mark A. Hawkins was unveiled and blessed at the conclusion of the ceremony and their stories were related by Alliance Mayor Alan Andreani, who also announced that the Banners Honoring Hometown Heroes project would be reinstated so that more veterans can be honored. (Those wishing to honor a loved one with a banner can apply at https://militarytributebanners.org/).

“It is our duty to memorialize all those who have made the greatest sacrifice on our behalf,” said Andreani. “We need to solemnize and remember them and the debt that we owe them.”

Ruth, a 1961 Alliance High School graduate, left Alliance when he joined the Marine Corps at the age of 20 and flew 640 missions as a medevac helicopter pilot during his assignment in Vietnam. He eventually became a teacher in Maryland, a career he enjoyed for 27 years. He also served in the National Guard, going back on active duty during the Persian Gulf War, taping lessons to send to his students while overseas in a combat zone.

Following retirement as a teacher, he took a post with the National Guard at The Pentagon and was there on Sept. 11, 2001. Immediately after American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building, Ruth was crawling on his stomach and leading his coworkers outside. But before he could escape, he heard a cry for help and turned back, telling his coworkers to exit the building.

That was the last time Ruth was seen alive.

Meanwhile, Hawkins, a graduate of Marlington High School, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1982 and served for 18 years. He was on sea duty on Oct. 12, 2000 aboard the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer at port in Yemen, when two suicide bombers in a small fiberglass boat hit the port side of the ship. Hawkins was one of 39 sailors injured in the attack that killed 17 others.

Due to his injuries, he was assigned to stateside duty as a weapons consultant. In 2001, he was stationed in Louisiana, but on that fateful day in 2001, he was on temporary assignment at The Pentagon, giving a report when the plane struck the west side, killing all 59 passengers and 125 military personnel and civilians inside. As a result of his injuries, Hawkins was transported to a hospital and died five days later.

It is assumed that Hawkins is the only member of the military that was involved in both the attack on the USS Cole and the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“We must keep the memory of William Ruth alive,” said Andreani. “We must keep the memory of Mark Hawkins alive. We must keep the memories of the 22 honored here today alive. We must keep those who are on memorials in a number of places in our city. We can’t thank them, but we show our appreciation to the Gold Star families here."

Keep their memories alive

Beth Zbasknik, a representative of the Jane Bain chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, likened the family members of Gold Star soldiers to a witness tree.

A witness tree is one that is thrust into the spotlight, playing an involuntary part in a significant historic event. Often, that event is a devastating, landscape-scarring battle or other tragic moment. The tree survives, but hides bullets and scars from that tragic event beneath layers of rings and bark. They would have incredible stories to tell if they could talk.

Such trees are live things that can connect people to tragic events better than an inanimate object.

Like witness trees, the family of a Gold Star soldier becomes an involuntary part of a significant event that has devastated a life, Zbasknik said. Those family members become a symbol of their loved ones, sharing their stories and memories in the midst of their sacrifice. And like a nearby grove of trees, the community stands with that family that serves as the witness tree.

Also making brief remarks during the Gold Star Families Event was Jean Wilson, the State of Ohio American Legion Commander.

Wilson, a veteran of the U.S. Army and the first female elected as the state commander, was part of a Gold Star family herself due to the death of her brother.

“For a Gold Star family, every day is Memorial Day,” said Wilson, who wears a red poppy every day to remind herself of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for liberty and freedom. “That pain of losing a loved one never goes away. But as one Gold Star mother once said, ‘Dying for freedom is not the worst thing that can happen, but being forgotten is.’ With this memorial, these fallen heroes will never be forgotten.”

Taking part

Abby Schroeder, director of the Regula Center at the University of Mount Union, served as the mistress of ceremonies that was sponsored by the Alliance Rotary Club, Alliance Elks 467, American Legion Post 166, Friends of the Park, Greater Alliance Foundation, Hometown Heroes Banner Committee, Lavery Automotive, Sarchione Ford of Alliance, Wally Armour and the University of Mount Union.

Retired Judge Robert Lavery opened the ceremony with a prayer for the fallen, while the Rev. G. David Weikart, pastor of the Catholic Community of Alliance, Maximo and Sebring, blessed the 9-11 memorial and the stone dedicated to Ruth and Hawkins.

Matthew Eversdyke played taps and Brian Burse played the echo at the conclusion of the program. Eversdyke was also part of a quartet along with Alex Glautheir, Samuel Darrin, and Josh Morris that sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” to begin the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Korleski sang “Proud to Be an American” by Lee Greenwood a capella in which all those in attendance stood as proud Americans prior to the reading of the names of the honored Gold Star soldiers.

The color guard from American Legion Post 166 was on hand to raise the flag as well as a two-star Gold Star flag in honor of Hawkins and Ruth that will continue to fly over the 9-11 memorial. The color guard also performed a three-volley salute for all of the honored fallen soldiers.

Many other dignitaries and veterans were in the crowd as well as a large group of Cub Scouts from Pack 2052 who were on hand along with other members of the community to pay tribute to the Gold Star soldiers and their families.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Gold Star event: Alliance pays tribute to its fallen heroes